Francis E. Walter Dam, White Haven, Pa., Delaware Watershed Tour 1st stop

The Walter Dam Road traverses the top of the Francis E. Walter Dam in White Haven, Pa., and from that road you can see across miles of undulating hills — hills that form the sides of the Lehigh River Gorge.

When you’re on top of the dam, you get a real understanding of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers motto: Building strong.

The dam is strong and solid as a rock: A 234-foot-high earth fill dam with concrete spillway, capable of holding (drum roll, please) 36,000,000,000 gallons of water.

The drainage area above the dam — according to a handy plaque that the USACE has placed next to the dam (you can see it in a picture below with even more impressive numbers) — is 288 square miles. That’s bigger than the size of Chicago.

Remember watersheds? This dam has that size watershed and captures that much water so it doesn’t end up farther downstream, causing floods. This dam and others in the watershed were built in response to the flood of 1955, which took 99 lives in the Delaware River watershed.

There’s a great read about the Delaware River, its dams and the USACE here: http://www.nap.usace.army.mil/Porta…/…/docs/History/ch02.pdf